MEMOIR OF BURCKHARDT. 43 



the ancient Coelo-Syria, and stretches between the 

 two mountain chains of the Libanus and the Anti- 

 Libanus. 



At Baalbec Burckhardt remained three days, in- 

 specting the ruins and copying inscriptions ; but the 

 celebrated work of Wood and Dawkins, who visited 

 the place in 1 75 1 , and the subsequent account given 

 by Yolney (in 1784), rendered it unnecessary for 

 him to enter into any description of these magnifi- 

 cent architectural remains. Volney, he remarks, 

 is incorrect in describing the rock of which the 

 great temple is constructed, as granite ; it is of the 

 primitive calcareous kind ; although in different 

 parts there are fragments of granite columns to be 

 found. Having lately visited Tadmor, he was 

 naturally led to draw a comparison between those 

 renowned monuments of antiquity. " The entire 

 view (says he) of the ruins of Palmyra, when seen 

 at a certain distance, is infinitely more striking 

 than that of Baalbec ; but there is not any one 

 spot in the ruins of Tadmor so imposing as the in- 

 terior view of the temple of Baalbec. The temple 

 of the sun at Tadmor is upon a grander scale than 

 that of Baalbec, but it is choked up with Arab 

 houses, which admit only of a view of the building 

 in detail. The architecture of Baalbec is richer 

 than that of Tadmor." 



The walls of the ancient city may still be traced, 

 forming a circuit of between three and four miles, 

 and including a larger space than the present town 

 ever occupied, even in its most flourishing condi- 



